By Walter Lewin | Physics I: Classical Mechanics Lecture 27 of 35
Concepts covered in this lecture include gases and incompressible liquids, Pascal's Principle, hydrostatic and barometric pressure. Professor Lewins concludes with a discussion of overpressure in our lungs. The lung capacity, our ability to overcome hydrostatic pressure, is measured with a manometer. This is related to how deep snorkeling works, and why scuba-divers use pressurized air tanks. Professor Lewin demonstrates that by blowing on a manometer, or by sucking on it, we can raise or lower a column of water by about 1 meter (0.1 atmosphere). So why then was he able to suck fluid up a straw of several meters long?
This course is a first-semester freshman physics class in Newtonian Mechanics, Fluid Mechanics, and Kinetic Gas Theory. In addition to the basic concepts a variety of interesting topics are covered in this course: Binary Stars, Neutron Stars, Black Holes, Resonance Phenomena, Musical Instruments, Stellar Collapse, Supernovae, Astronomical observations from very high flying balloons (lecture 35), and you will be allowed a peek into the intriguing Quantum World.
